1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electronic communication by means of a digitally controlled computer and, more particularly, to data processing methodology and apparatus for effecting an improved interpersonal-social communication system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Interpersonal-social greeting cards have required the user to select from a plurality of messages printed in a fixed media on a paper based card combined with a visual still picture and design. While pleasing to the eye, the message and picture are static and both ignore the sense of hearing.
Some greeting cards have expanded to a multimedia presentation by adding an integrated circuit to the card format so that when the card is opened, an on/off switch mounted on the card is turned on to activate the integrated circuit to generate a musical selection to accompany the recipients review of the paper card's printed message, picture and design.
Other greeting cards have an integrated circuit capable of speech synthesis. the integrated circuit provides for an external read only memory (ROM) to increase the vocabulary of the integrated circuit speech synthesis driver. the integrated circuit can be attached to a paper greeting card to provide a "spoken word message" to accompany the printed message, picture and design of the card.
When using the musical generation card, the musical selection is fixed by the prespecified mask used in the fabrication of the integrated circuit. The effort to create a new musical selection includes the creation of a new mask to manufacture another integrated circuit. The procedure of creating a mask is arduous, time consuming and prone to error. Errors are difficult to locate and any error that is recognized after th mask has been used to create the integrated circuit usually renders the integrated circuit unusable.
The basic speech synthesis card has a limited vocabulary and thus can only produce a limited number of spoken messages.
With the addition of external ROM, the vocabulary is increased to produce a much larger number of spoken messages. However, the rom is still an integrated circuit with all of the limitations of flexibility, cost and manufacturing problems discussed above.
There has long been a need for a multimedia versatile interpersonal-social communication system that can be produced with relative ease, is amenable to correction by simple editing and has the capability of containing a wide selection.